Walking With El Salvador

Plan. Train. Go! In a nutshell, this describes the Mission of Healing 2022: Plan , Train , Go. If you are coming into this story in the middle, you really should take a moment to click on PLAN and then on TRAIN . This episode celebrates GO.  CELEBRATES!  Yup, that all caps shout-out is so all of you sister church relationship coordinators and international companion synod cheerleaders in the back row can enjoy a celebratory trajectory moment with our Mission of Healing North team. Whether you've been working on a ministry project with your companions for 3 years, 5 years or 25 years, we suspect you know the challenges of visioning mutually, adapting with time and circumstances, and developing local sustainability - sustainability not only (or necessarily) in terms of local economic independence, but in terms of local local leadership, local leadership development, local creativity, and local enthusiasm.  During the Teach the Teachers event, we collected names and WhatsA...

The pandemic brought lots of changes to the way we could do ministry together, locally and globally. In 2020, we put on the Mission of Healing North Family Wellness Fair just before COVID locked down the world. In 2021, we did a year-long, remote, community education event.  In 2022, we jumped into a new era of community health education in El Salvador and created a training event called "Formación de Formadores" (we used "Teach the Teachers" in English).  2022 Teach the Teachers Event Curriculum Development As I mentioned in the previous installment of the Teach the Teachers story, the Salvadoran Lutheran Church Health Ministries Coordinator, Pastor Conchi, suggested we develop curriculum for the Mission of Healing North Teach the Teachers workshop with a focus on each of 4 human body systems:  Digestive, Circulatory, Respiratory and Reproductive. We started by planning the general information charla for each system. We created big colorful posters and simple ...

This is a story about the end of an era. We are reminiscent. We are thankful. We are relieved. We are proud. In February 2022, we celebrated 22 years of Missions of Healing in the northern region of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church. This was the last Mission of Healing North centered around the participation of a companion synod delegation. The preparations for the event took more than 6 months and the delegation was in El Salvador for 2 weeks. We are done. And we are not done. In a better-than-hoped-for way, the community health education plan begun during those 2 weeks is being implemented across the region by local teams. This is a "mission accomplished" success story with a happy trajectory. Photo of the 2022 Mission of Healing North delegation. (Photo credit:  Salvadoran Mission of Healing team) Photo of the 2000 Mission of Healing delegation. (2 team members not pictured) The idea for a new kind of Mission of Healing for 2022 evolved out of what we learned by attempting t...

Quick review:  the pandemic forced us to cancel the annual Mission of Healing family wellness fairs, which we usually hold each February in coordination with the Salvadoran Lutheran Church.  We came up with a plan to produce a year-long series of educational videos with accompanying print materials for small groups to use in local churches or families to use at home.  In late 2020, we never imagined that the pandemic would last well into 2021, nor that it would continue to critically impact so much of what we think of as "normal life" so many months after vaccines were developed and available.  In July, along with the curriculum for studying the respiratory system, we included more resources about COVID-19 and how to diminish its transmission. We will do this again in October. So, what is the COVID-19 situation in El Salvador?  The government continues to vaccinate people at a good rate (about 77,000 per day) and the percentage of the total population which has ...

Breathe in. Breathe out.  We can breathe intentionally. Mostly we breathe automatically. But if we cannot breathe, we cannot live. During this long pandemic ordeal, breathing has taken center stage as a human reflex that should not be taken for granted. Infections of the respiratory system can be common, like a cold. They can be deadly, like tuberculosis or pneumonia. Respiratory infections can be caused by a virus such as H1N1 (swine flu) or bacteria such as pertussis (whooping cough). Some respiratory infections can be prevented or made less severe by using vaccines. Pertussis, flu and now, SARS CoV 2 (or COVID-19) are preventable or made less severe through the use of vaccines. Prevention of respiratory infections, learning the warning signs of dangerous infections, and understanding how to properly use medications which treat these infections are very, very important educational themes in EVERY Mission of Healing which we do.  This is our focus for July.  These are a ...

June is all about being ACTIVE! The 2021 Mission of Healing online theme for June is My Active Body is a Healthy Body. Moms having a big of fun after leading remote-learning gym class for their kids For many years as part of our annual Mission of Healing in El Salvador, we have included one or more mini-workshops featuring stretching, simple strengthening exercise, yoga, or chair yoga.  We usually have a member of our team who is especially good at encouraging older men and women (who are often a little shy) to practice movements which help with balance and mobility and can help decrease arthritis pain.  Nola is one of our experienced teachers, and she made a couple of simple exercise videos to share this year.  We invited families to submit photos or videos of themselves doing physical activities, thinking we could also use those to encourage people to get moving.  We took the photos and videos we received and created a fun mash-up movie with a little bit of instru...

A Brief Introduction  If you have been following the story of the Mission of Healing 2021 with the northern micro-region churches of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church, you know that this year we went virtual! Each month we are producing video and printed education materials related to a particular theme. You can dive right into the month of May, or if you would like a little background first, you might like to explore these stories. Mission of Healing 2021: What's the Plan?  Mission of Healing 2021: Personal Hygiene  Mission of Healing 2021:Community Hygiene Mission of Healing 2021: Nutrition and Family Gardens Opening up Safe Spaces for Difficult Conversations More than 20 years ago, during my first visit in El Salvador, a Salvadoran Lutheran pastor in a rural community asked my friend and me if we had any resources which address domestic and sexual violence - resources which she could use with the women in her community to help them and to teach them. We did not have resou...

A Brief Introduction If you have been following the story of the Mission of Healing 2021 with the northern micro-region churches of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church, you know that this year we went virtual!  Each month we are producing video and printed education materials related to a particular theme.  You can dive right into the month of April, or if you would like a little background first, you might like to explore these stories. Mission of Healing 2021: What's the Plan? Mission of Healing 2021:  Personal Hygiene Mission of Healing 2021:  Community Hygiene A few of the leaders shared photos from their first small group learning activities.  We put those into a celebratory video to share with everyone in the northern churches to build enthusiasm for this year's program. Mission of Healing in Action April's Theme is all about VEGGIES! In El Salvador, the rainy season begins in May.  April is the time to get the soil ready and begin the planting process....